Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: beckerd@grover.cs.unc.edu (David Becker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: WW III stories (was Re: Tom Clancy)
Message-ID: <12145@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Dec 89 00:40:35 GMT
References: <12095@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: beckerd@grover.cs.unc.edu (David Becker)
In article <12095@cbnews.ATT.COM> willner@cfa203.harvard.edu (Steve Willner) writes:
>From: willner@cfa203.harvard.edu (Steve Willner)
>Fans of Tom Clancy should read the article by Scott Shuger in the
>November issue of the _Washington Monthly_.
>...  And Mr.
>Shuger's criticism is valid; weapons - especially US weapons - almost
>always work as intended, and intelligence (on the US side, anyway) is
>far too accurate to be convincing.

_Red Storm Rising_ and other Clancy novels make US intelligence a central
part of the story.  Are the real US intelligence agencies even close to
as good as Clancy portrays them?

> ... read _The Third World War_;
> it's by a retired general and is much more convincing.  (My copy
>has somehow disappeared, so I can't give author's name or publisher,

_The Third World War_, by General Sir John Hacket, a retired British
general who, if I remeber right, commanded NorthHAG in the 70s.

He also wrote _The Third World War:  The Untold Story_.  These books are
a collection of events that happen in WW III if it started in 1985(they
were written around 80 and 83 respectively) and
included a nuclear exchange where Minsk and a British city, Birmingham?,
are nuked.   The stories concentrate much more on the hardware and
strategies than Clancy, have less characterization and a LOT more TLAs.
(Three Letter Acronyms)

At points Hacket uses the books as his personal soapbox.  He champions weapons
systems and complains about NATO unrediness.  The Soviets are portrayed
as fighting the enemy because the KGB is worse but then again Clancy
does that too.  The good guys win as Soviet Empires disintegrates from
within.

Basically just some cold war nostalgia.

David Becker  beckerd@cs.unc.edu